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September 6, 2020
Friends and Neighbors,
I hope that you and your loved ones are doing well, staying healthy, and looking out for your neighbors and friends.
Since it’s Sunday, you’ll find only partial reporting on some of the metrics tracking coronavirus in Oregon. Rather than providing information about positive test results alone, over the weekend OHA combines those numbers with the relatively small number of those who are presumed to be positive based on their symptoms and close proximity to someone who has tested positive, but whose test results have not yet come back. But it still gives us a good idea of what’s going on.
I’m happy to report that our case count and positivity rates are again on the low side today. And only one COVID death in Oregon was reported today.
As I’ve been doing on Sundays, I’m including updated information about how COVID is affecting people of different ages. We see the same trends as in past weeks: COVID cases are most prevalent in younger people. When it is passed on to older people, it becomes much more dangerous (though we continue to see a slight increase in hospitalizations and deaths among those under the age of 50).
You’ll also find information about new recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences around equitable distribution of the COVID vaccine that we’re all waiting for.
Best wishes for a safe and happy Labor Day!
TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE
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Positive Cases: OHA reports that 190 additional Oregonians have tested positive or are presumed positive (see below for definition) for COVID. OHA does not report positive test results alone over the weekend. I’ll be able to readjust the numbers on Tuesday (since Monday is a holiday) to remove the presumed positives. The cumulative total for those testing positive and presumed positive is 28,044.
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Total Tests: The number of reported tests has increased by 5,318. Today’s increase in total results also includes presumed positives in the total results, so may be a little high. I’ll readjust the numbers on Tuesday. The cumulative total is now 585,425.
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Ratio: The percentage of positive cases in Oregon is 3.6% of total results, just under the statewide threshold for in-person school reopening.
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Deaths: I’m sorry to report 1 additional death due to the coronavirus today. You can read more about the Oregonian we lost further down in the newsletter. The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now at 481.
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Hospitalized: OHA does not report on hospitalizations over the weekend. The cumulative number of those who have been hospitalized with COVID thus remains at 2,161.
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Presumptive Cases: OHA is including “presumptive COVID-19 cases” in its daily reports, consistent with recently amended guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A presumptive case is someone who does not yet have a positive PCR test but is showing symptoms and has had close contact with a confirmed case. If they later test positive by PCR, those will be recategorized as confirmed cases.
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Other Hospital Information: OHA DOES NOT REPORT hospitalization information over the weekend, so the numbers below are the same as Friday’s.
- Patients Currently w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 147 (14 more than Thursday). Of those, 91 have already received a positive test back.
- Available ICU Beds: 145 (26 fewer than Thursday)
- Other Available Beds: 681 (28 fewer than Thursday).
- ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 45 (2 more than Thursday).
- COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 23 (3 fewer than Thursday).
- Available Ventilators: 775 (same as Thursday).
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Today’s National Numbers:
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Additional Brief Updates
- In yesterday’s newsletter I included a link to an article about the low number of school districts that are reopening for in-person K-3 instruction, even if they meet the health benchmarks for doing so (districts in 17 counties currently meet that threshold). One of the reasons for this is concern among teachers and other school personnel that their schools are not ready for safe reopening. For more on the teachers’ perspective, here's an article from this morning's Seattle Times.
- So what are the current plans for each of Oregon’s schools (public, private, and charter)? Each is required to post its plan on its school website and send it to the Oregon Department of Education. ODE has them all posted for you to examine on its website. You can check them all out here. You can check them all out here.
Vaccine Guidelines Up for Public Comment
I’m sure you’ve been reading or hearing about the various COVID vaccines that are currently being tested around the world. Despite hopes and dreams, it still seems unlikely that we’ll have a safe, effective vaccine available before the end of this calendar year at the earliest.
But even then there are many questions around the distribution of the vaccine. Who will get the vaccines first? Should it go older people first because they are more at risk? Should it go to younger people first because they have longer lives ahead of them? Should it go first to members of racial/ethnic groups that are at greatest risk of morbidity from the disease? Will it only be available to those living in the countries that are developing and producing them. Who will decide? As you can imagine, these decisions will be difficult and controversial, and it’s important that they be thought through well in advance.
To that end, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine has been working on a set of recommendations and just released a draft Framework for Equitable Allocation of a COVID-19 Vaccine. . You’ll see that it recommends prioritization of the following:
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Risk of acquiring infection: Higher priority given to individuals who have a greater probability of being in settings where COVID-19 is circulating and exposure to a sufficient dose of the virus.
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Risk of severe morbidity and mortality: Higher priority given to individuals who have a greater probability of severe disease or death if they acquire infection.
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Risk of negative societal impact: Higher priority given to individuals with societal function and upon whom other people’s lives and livelihood depend directly and would be imperiled if they fell ill. It does not consider their wealth or income, or how readily an individual could be replaced in a work setting, given labor market conditions.
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Risk of transmitting disease to others: Higher priority given to individuals who have a higher probability of transmitting the disease to others.
You can find more information about their draft recommendations and the process for finalizing them here.
Unfortunately, I only learned about the draft this morning, and it had a very short public comment period (September 1 through September 4), so it’s too late for you to affect the Academy’s final recommendations. But it will be interesting to see what if any changes are made before the final plan is released.
Looking at Age Metrics
Here again are this week’s statewide case, hospitalization, and death metrics by age. Here is updated information as of September 4. The percentages for each category have not really moved at all. You’ll see again that younger people have come to dominate the category of new cases: three-fourths of new cases are below the age of 50.
Again, a slight majority of hospitalizations are among those above the age of 60. Deaths remain dominated by those above the age of 70, but we are continuing to see more deaths among people in their 60s and younger.
   
Where Are Today’s New Cases?
If we put together the positive test results and new “presumptive” cases reported today, the overall number of new cases is 190. Here is the breakdown by county for today:
Benton (3)
Clackamas (18)
Columbia (1)
Curry (1)
Deschutes (3)
Jackson (13)
Jefferson (1)
Lane (14)
Linn (2)
Malheur (8)
Marion (30)
Morrow (1)
Multnomah (50)
Polk (3)
Umatilla (14)
Wasco (3)
Washington (23)
Yamhill (2)
And the Death
Oregon’s 481st COVID-19 death is an 89-year-old man in Lane County who tested positive on August 27 and died on September 5, in his residence.
   
Want to See Past Newsletters?
If there was COVID-related information in a past newsletter that you want to go back to, but find you’ve deleted it, you can always go to my legislative website (senatordembrow.com), click on “News and Information,” and you’ll find them all there. Also, if someone forwarded you this newsletter and you’d like to get it directly, you can sign up for it there.
AND FINALLY,
Here again are some resources that you will find useful:
If the above links are not providing you with answers to your questions or directing you to the help that you need, please consider me and my office to be a resource. We’ll do our best to assist you or steer you in the right direction.
Best,
 Senator Michael Dembrow
District 23
email: Sen.MichaelDembrow@oregonlegislature.gov
web: www.senatordembrow.com
phone: 503-281-0608
mail: 900 Court St NE, S-407, Salem, OR, 97301
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